This story is very human! A bright, talented, young cadet believes that his strength and power will be enough to live an excellent awesome life, which is hubris, because he doesn't have any idea how strange and difficult life can be. This is the story of a man who finds out that his above-average skills are actually not designed for him to get what he wants; they are there so he can navigate his incredibly complicated, heartbreaking, difficult fate.
But that doesn't mean this book is a tragedy (it happens to contain many elements of tragedy, but it ends in a wedding, and in the end of his life, we learn that he is happy, visiting his son in America. Also, Yuan eventually does get the catharsis he needs when he learns what exactly the Chinese Communists did (they committed many horrible atrocities in the name of human rights). This is a reward, because it helps him contextualize his memories.
In other words, the reader should understand Yu Yuan as a martyr, kind of, but not literally, since he doesn't die at the hands of injustice. Still, he is made to witness incredible injustice in the novel, and his opinion of Communism is that it's a front for powerful people to get what they want by manipulating people into sacrificing their autonomy. Why? Because Communism came and took away his enfranchisement and autonomy.
